quattro® Highlights

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The Rally quattro

Superiority through permanent all-wheel drive.

The idea of a rally car was every bit as old as the concept for the production car at Audi, originating in 1977. The Audi Mo- torsport Department was established the following year and entered rally racing with the front-wheel drive .

The first quattro ran as a course car in the European Champion­ ship series race in Portugal in 1980. In early 1981, the quattro cars swept over the rally scene like a force of nature. Local driver Franz Wittmann won the Janner Rally in Austria, which was not a World Championship race, in a Rally quattro by more than 20 minutes over the second-place car. By 1982, the quattro was already virtually unbeatable anywhere in the world; Audi easily captured the Manufacturers’ Trophy with The Rally quattro used the same five-cylinder turbo as the pro- seven victories. Mouton won in Portugal, Greece and Brazil; only duction car; the two-valve power unit developed a hearty 230 kW a breakdown in the penultimate race in the Ivory Coast cost her (roughly 310 hp) from 2.1 liters of displacement and 1.6 bar of the drivers’ title. However, Mikkola set the record straight in 1983 boost. Lightweight body components limited its weight to around after winning in Finland, Sweden, Argentina and Portugal. Audi 1,200 kilograms (2,645.55 lb), roughly 100 kilograms (220.46 lb) introduced two evolutions of the competition car in short order less than the production car. Depending on the final drive ratio, during this season. The second version with the internal designa­ the Rally quattro accelerated from 0 to 100 km/h (0 to 62.14 tion A2 ultimately developed as much as 295 kW (a good 400 hp) mph) in around 5.2 seconds on a dry surface. in its final evolution. The weight was reduced to less than 1,100 kilograms (2,425.08 lb), in part due to an aluminum cylinder At its World Championship debut in the , the block. quattro again demonstrated its superiority. Ten kilometers into the first stage, passed a Stratos in the snow The next year, too, began with a win. The newly recruited two- that had started one minute before him. Only an accident pre­ time World Champion Walter Röhrl won the Monte Carlo Rally vented the Finn from winning; he secured his first victory the very ahead of his team colleagues (Sweden) and Hannu next race at the Swedish Rally. The French driver Michèle Mouton Mikkola. The season ended with Audi once again dominating the became the first woman in the world to win a World Champion­ manufacturers’ championship with seven victories. Blomqvist ship race in San Remo, and Mikkola emerged victorious again in posted five of those and won the drivers’ championship ahead of the RAC Rally. At the end of the Audi model’s first year in action, Mikkola. it was placed third in the drivers’ standings.

Source: DVD quattro® Highlights 2010 | Status: 03/2010